U.S. envoys accused of favoring Serbs as fighting intensifies

After a short reprieve, battles in Kosovo intensified Tuesday, and a leading Kosovo Albanian militant accused U.S. envoys of favoring the Serbs in his mediation efforts for the secessionist province.

The Kosovo Information Center said several ethnic Albanians were killed and others injured, including women and children, in heavy Serb offensives near the Albanian border and in central Kosovo. The information center is run by the Kosovo Albanian leadership.The report could not be independently confirmed.

The fighting followed a brief lull over the past week. Hundreds of people have died and about 265,000 have been driven from their homes in six months of battle between Serb-led forces and Kosovo Albanian rebels who want independence from Serbia, the dominant of two republics remaining in Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic insisted Monday he has no intention of calling off his offensive, despite renewed appeals from European and U.S. officials.

But in an apparent sign he is willing to compromise, the independent daily Glas Javnosti reported Tuesday that Milosevic has ordered the Serbian government to draft election plans for a Kosovo parliament that would be dominated by ethnic Albanians. It said the vote should be held within three months.

Milosevic abolished Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament when he stripped the province of autonomy in 1989.